


Everything and Nothing

by Hashtagmavin



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Dangerous activities with no negative consequences, Elevator Dare AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-07
Updated: 2014-01-18
Packaged: 2018-01-07 22:33:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1125180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hashtagmavin/pseuds/Hashtagmavin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was supposed to be a stupid dare. Just a dumb dare that revolved around him pushing stupid buttons in a stupid elevator because of a stupid post on the internet. It wasn't supposed to work.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted at Hashtagmavin.tumblr.com
> 
> Prompt: "(The "GOING TO ANOTHER WORLD THROUGH AN ELEVATOR (+ some tips on how to return)" post) where Michael is a boy dared to go on the elevator by his buncha friends and try to go to the other world, but instead of a girl getting on the elevator, a strange British boy gets on and Michael has to find a way back."

It all started on the podcast.

He isn’t usually a guest on that particular production, but whenever he is he tries his best to be entertaining and tell funny stories. Usually they consist of his childhood or job as an electrician. People still laugh and gag over the stories of him throwing up in the back seat of his mothers car, or the time he had to use his own fist as a plunger.

Burnie and Gus try to switch up the guests for the podcast every once in a while, Barbara is usually their go-to-girl for it because the fans love both her and her ridiculous puns.

Sometimes he’s asked through email or during a company meeting. Today however he was just getting a cup of coffee in the kitchen when Gus walked in and said “Michael, you’re on the podcast today.” and then left without waiting for a response.

Luckily he really does like being on the podcast. It’s literally just sitting down for an hour and listening to his friends and co-workers have funny arguments, retell silly stories from their past, or discuss current events. Easy.

It’s even more entertaining when they talk about dumb bullshit that’s been viral on the internet.

Lately everyone has been going crazy over those dumb scary hoax posts about ghosts, aliens, and the paranormal. It’s an interesting discussion even though it’s all fake.

"When I was a kid we used to dare our classmates to go into the bathroom and do that stupid ‘Bloody Mary’ thing into the mirrors," Burnie says, chuckling at the memory, "Then we’d turn on and off the lights and making screaming noises from the door."

"You’re a terrible person!" Gus accuses, but he’s laughing too.

"It was funny! The poor kid would be scarred for life but it sure made for some great high school memories," he muses.

"During my last year of high school a bunch of my classmates dared me to stay out all night in the graveyard for two hundred dollars," Barbara says, shuddering at the memory but then smirks, "I stayed for like ten minutes and then left. But I went back at like six in the morning, just an hour before everyone came back to see if I was still there."

Burnie laughs out loud, “Did they fall for it? Did you get the money?”

"Of course I did!" she laughs, "I told them all of these stories about how I saw ghosts and spirits rising from the graves and they walked around."

"You did not!"  
  
"I did," she nods proudly, "They all believed it and I was one hundred dollars richer."

They share more and more stories until Burnie finally asks, “What about you, Michael? Have you ever done any of those silly paranormal tales?”

"I don’t think so, not because I was too scared, but because I knew they were bullshit and didn’t want to waste my time."

Burnie laughs, “How valuable was your time as a teenager?”

"Well, I also didn’t have stupid friends that believed in those things."

"What about now?" Barbara asks, "We should get you to do one for an RT Life."

"That’d actually be awesome because we could do that elevator one right here in the building," Burnie says, and begins going back in his search history to find it. They’d talked about that one and countless others earlier, mainly just to make fun of them and discuss how gullible people are to believe they could work.

"I’ll do it, I don’t give a shit," Michael shrugs nonchalantly.

"Kara’s telling me that she doesn’t think it’s a good idea," Gus laughs after hearing the words through his ear piece.

"C’mon, Kara!" he yells at the camera playfully.

"It says you have to just go into the elevators, click buttons in a certain combination," Burnie continues while squinting at his computer screen in concentration.

"Easy."

*

"This is ridiculous," Michael mutters while crossing his arms.

"You were the one who agreed to it," Burnie grins, holding up a camera so that it’s facing his annoyed employee, "Do you remember the combination?"

"Yeah, obviously."

"Recite it to me."

"What?" his shoulders sag in exasperation, "Why?"

"I just want to make sure. What if you get to the other world but then you forget the button combination to get back? You’ll be stuck there forever."

"Fuck off, there’s no ‘ _other world_ ’. You’re all idiots.”

"I guess you’ll find out for yourself when you go," Lindsay says, very amused at his annoyance.

"I will, and then I’ll rub it in all of your stupid faces when nothing happens."

"Yeah, you’ll be proving an internet post wrong," Ray mutters sarcastically, "Whoa, alert the media. Someone was wrong on the internet."

Michael figures that this is probably the most stupid RT Life that they’ve ever filmed. It’s literally just the four of them standing in front of an elevator talking.

When discussing and agreeing to do this on the podcast, he didn’t think it would actually happen. Twitter ended up exploding with countless people excitedly asking when the video would come out or giving him stupid advice. Some people telling him he shouldn’t do it and others hoping that it’ll be funny. Even after a week of not mentioning it on camera or any social media, the community was still abuzz with excitement.

He’s slightly regretting it now, not because he believes it will work, but because the hassle is just a major inconvenience. He’s supposed to be editing a Rage Quit video right now, not disproving some stupid demon-elevator trick.

Well, maybe he’s kind of hyping up his annoyance for the camera. He’s known to the fans as the angry guy, so bitching and swearing about this is probably the best way to handle it. But he is honestly a little ticked off over everybody making such a big deal out of nothing. This is a video that they won’t even get content out of because nothing is going to happen.

"You press  _four_ , then  _two_ , then  _six_ ,  _two_ again,  _ten_ , then  _five_. Then some poltergist chick comes on but I’m not allowed to talk or look at her. Then I press  _one_ but it’ll take me to  _ten_. Then I’ll be to the  _other world,_ " he recites, already knowing the combination off by heart since it’s been repeated so much over the last few days.

The internet post has also been a hot topic around the office ever since the podcast, and everybody has been coming up to Michael to talk about it.

Burnie nods as his eyes skim through the actual post on his phone. “Yeah,” he confirms Michael’s words, “That’s about it. And how do you get back?”

"Does that really matter? This crap isn’t going to work anyways."

"Michael," he states, glaring with a hint of mocking playfulness beneath. It’s obvious that he isn’t taking this seriously either, but then again, nobody really is.

He lets out a dramatic sigh, “Do the whole damn thing all over again, in the same elevator, and then when I go to the fifth floor I press  _one_. While going to the tenth floor I press some other number to cancel it out. Then when I reach the first floor I’ll be back here.”

"Perfect. Now just make sure you don’t forget it while you’re there."

"How long do you really think I’m going to be there?"

"I don’t know, you didn’t pack a suitcase or anything so hopefully not too long," he grins.

Michael rolls his eyes and chuckles, “Shut the hell up.”

"Do you want to take the camera with you," Burnie asks him, the device still pointed towards and recording him.

"Doesn’t it say that they usually don’t work there?"

"Yeah, but what’s the harm in taking one?"

"Literally nothing because nothing is going to happen. You’re either going to get footage of me just standing in an elevator, or no footage at all because the camera won’t work."

"True, we’re better off just using this camera to film you going in then coming out rather than not getting anything."

"We could go get another camera," Lindsay suggests.

"That requires effort, Lindsay," Ray says.

"Just get in the damn elevator before the battery on this thing dies," Burnie says, shoving Michael by the shoulder roughly towards the open elevator doors.

"Fine, fine," Michael mutters and rolls his eyes before stepping in. The camera is still facing him so he smirks before pressing the button  _four_ , and says “Don’t miss me too much.”

"Yeah, we’ll try not to." Ray manages to say before the elevator doors close and leave him alone.

It’s weird how quiet elevators are nowadays. There’s none of that stereotypical smooth jazz music playing in the background, but that’s probably a good thing.

One thing about working in an internet company is that you learn to appreciate moments of silence like this at your work place. Usually the day is spent screaming at video games, throwing a fit on camera, or goofing off with other co-workers.

The door opens on the fourth floor but he doesn’t get out, and simply presses the next button.

_Two._

It closes and he briefly wonders why everybody was so scared of this stupid thing. It’s literally just pressing buttons in an elevator.

There’s no downside or upside to this. He’s literally just going up and down floors in an elevator instead of spending his time doing other important things. Like, ya’know, his job.

_Six._

Which you think he would be doing while at work. Sometimes it’s hard for him to wrap his head around the fact that he actually works at a place where they have fans excited by the idea of him doing pointless crap like this.

_Ten._

Just pressing stupid buttons on an elevator.

_Five._

When he reaches the fifth floor and the doors open, he’s momentarily confused when somebody else steps in. At first he thinks it might just be a coincidence and somebody else in the building needed to use the elevator, but they didn’t come in from the well-lit office area that he knows floor five to be. Just a dark and empty room with no doors or windows.

He can’t examine it any further because the elevator doors begin to close, and he doesn’t exactly fancy the idea of getting out at this point.

What the hell.

Didn’t that post say something about a girl getting on at floor five?

But this is a guy.

Michael doesn’t look straight at him, but from his peripheral vision he can make out that he’s just a skinny boy with light brown hair.

“‘Ello,” the boy greets, turning to face him directly, but Michael doesn’t dare turn to look at him.

He has a thick British accent but his tone isn’t threatening or scary in any way. It’s actually light and pleasant, as though he’s amused at the thought of meeting another person in an elevator.

Michael ignores him and presses button  _one_ , and then looks up to see the screen indicating the current floor is going up instead of down like it should be.

If that internet post is correct then that means he’s done it right.

"Are you okay, lad?" the boy asks him.

The door opens and instead of it being the tenth floor that he’s expecting, always bright and lit up by the numerous fluorescent office lights, it’s fairly dark. He’s still able to see everything, almost as though the room is being only partially lit up by natural light. But there’s no lights on. They’re all completely off.

He scrunches his eyebrows together and walks out of the elevator.

"Where are you going?"

There’s nobody else around.

There’s usually a lot of people on the tenth floor, just because it’s the highest in the building and everybody likes to have lunch in front of the windows.

Michael’s also struck with how quiet everything is. No gentle hum of the building, shouting or laughter from his other co-workers, or silly videos being recorded in other rooms.

The building is usually so loud, especially since it’s an internet production company. Somebody is always running around in a mocap suit or with a million documents. You can hear Gus complaining or JJ yelling for his intern, Blaine, to come assist him.

It’s odd that everything is just  _silent_.

He also feels lighter. Not like he’s about to float off into the air, but his body doesn’t feel as heavy or weighed down by gravity. It’s an odd feeling to describe.

He walks over to the light switch near the door and flicks it a few times, but no lights come on and the brightness of the room remains the same. “That doesn’t work,” the boy points out, alerting Michael of the fact that he’s following him, “Lots of things don’t work around here.”

Michael doesn’t respond but the boy continues to try and communicate.

"What are you doing?" he asks, following him as he walks through the empty office and out of the door. Michael notes that the sound of their shoes against the floor doesn’t make any sounds. He purposely drags his sneakers more and more with each step, but they don’t make the usual squeaky noises that he’s been accustomed to hearing whenever he walks along this floor.

The hallway is just as empty and quiet.

"Hello?" Michael calls out, cupping his hands over his mouth. There’s no response, not even an echo. After a few moments of just standing there in the silence, he finally smirks and rolls his eyes, "Okay, very funny, assholes."

This is a dumb prank, even for them, but he has to give them props for their dedication. To empty out the entire building all while he was in that elevator for a few moments must have been tough. It wasn’t like there was a distinct lack of people at work today, so everybody must have been in on it.

"Who are you talking to?" the guy continues to ask. Now coming up to walk beside him instead of behind.

You’re not supposed to talk to the demon or whatever that enters the elevator with you, but the internet post mentioned nothing about it following you around and asking non-stop questions. Also, it’s not like this is real anyways. What harm could there possibly be in talking to the guy they’ve asked to participate in the prank.

"My friends," Michael responds, still not turning to look at him, "I assume they’re hiding somewhere."

As they walk around he peeks into as many rooms as he can, searching for any signs of movement. He also notes that every computer and television is turned off. Nothing displayed on their monitors except a black screen which indicates that they aren’t on.

"Why?"

"Because they always do stupid crap like this. I’m sure it’ll make a funny video, my confused face as I get off of the elevator and all of that crap, but I think it’s time for it to end. How much more content could they possibly get from this?"

"Content?"

"Yeah," he nods, walking down the main staircase to look in the Achievement Hunter office, "RT Life videos usually aren’t very long, so they have to jump out and say ‘Gotcha!’ at some point."

"That sounds like fun, do you think they’ll do it soon?" he asks.

"Hopefully, but aren’t you kind of ruining the prank by responding to this conversation?"

"I’m currently not in on any pranks," the boy sounds thoughtful, as though he’s thinking back to any recent jokes that he’s agreed to be a part of, "Do you think I’m being pranked too?"

"What? No, that doesn’t even make sense."

"Hm," he agrees, "Well I’m still not exactly sure what you’re looking for."

"My friends, moron." Michael rolls his eyes, they really succeeded in picking the right actor for this. He’s both odd and annoying, also very good at improv if he’s able to come up with such confusing responses so quickly.

"They aren’t here," the boy responds easily, sounding slightly confused, "There’s nobody here besides me."

"Well where did they go?"

It’s not like they could have taken everybody off of the property this quickly.

"They’re back where you came from, aren’t they?" he asks, "Or did you take them with you?"

"Take them with me where?"

At this point they’ve walked to the main floor and are now standing in front of the entrance to the building. He’s expecting everybody to be crowded around there with video cameras and grinning faces.

"To this world," the boy says.

Michael wouldn’t believe him if it wasn’t for what he was looking at. From where they’re standing they can see out of the glass doors of the entrance, and he can see the parking lot, still filled with the cars of his co-workers, but not a person in sight. That wouldn’t be  _that_ odd, because they could still be hiding in the back, but what’s weird is that there is nobody else around.

No cars driving down the usually very busy road.

No people walking down the street.

No lights or sign of life in the buildings across from ours, which are usually bustling with people.

"I’m…" Michael murmurs out, unable to speak at a volume any louder, "I’m _here_?”

"Yeah!" the boy says, and Michael can hear the happiness in his voice, "You’re here with me! Isn’t this fun?"

He shakes his head and rubs his eyes, but when he opens them everything is still the exact same. The sky isn’t as bright, more like the sun has already gone down but everything is still easily visible.

This isn’t a prank.

That stupid internet post thing was fucking real and now he’s in this whacked up ‘other world’ with an weird demon thing that won’t leave him the hell alone.

What the ever living  _fuck_.


	2. Chapter 2

He isn’t about to panic, how would that really help the situation? He could easily just flee back to that elevator and try to go back like the internet post suggests, but something inside of him is compelled to stay for a while.

After all, he agreed to do this because he thought it was bullshit, he didn’t even amuse the idea that it could actually work. Maybe it’s just this place manipulating his thought process, but now that he’s here, it’s kind of interesting.

It’s like he stepped straight into an episode of The Twilight Zone or Welcome to Night Vale.

It’s not very often that you find yourself in a quiet and empty world.

So he pushes open the door to outside and begins walking down the parking lot, setting his goal on on walking down the road in search of any signs of life. He’s still desperately holding onto the fact that this is all some kind of stupid joke that they’ve taken  _really_ far and want to drag out as long as possible.

"Aren’t you going to ask me my name?" the boy questions, an amused smile on his face as he follows along.

"I wasn’t aware that demons had names."

"Why do you assume that I’m a demon?"

That causes him to stop walking and he finally turns around to actually look the boy in the eyes, “Aren’t you?”

He certainly doesn’t look like one. No glowing red eyes, claws, or sharp teeth. According to all of the television and movies Michael has seen covering the matter, that’s usually what demons look like. Instead his hair is light brown and is styled to stick up so that it doesn’t fall in front of his eyes, he’s wearing blue skinny jeans, and purple polo with small white stripes.

He seems to be a completely normal person.

Instead of looking offended or hurt, he looks confused. He raises his hand up to his chin as he ponders the thought, “I’m not sure. I don’t think so.”

"You don’t know?"

He shrugs and gives a carefree smile again, “How does one know if they’re a demon or not? Is there some type of test I could take?”

Michael rolls his eyes and decides to change the subject to more important matters, “Are you going to follow me everywhere?”

"Yeah, what else would I do?"

"I don’t know, what do you usually do?"

He shrugs, “I’m not sure. Just hang out, I suppose.”

How can one not be sure of what they do all day?

"What’s your name then?" Michael finally asks, seeing as how he obviously wants to tell.

"I’m Gavin," he grins, and sticks out his hand to shake, "Gavin Free."

Michael squints at him, unsure if he should shake his hand or make any physical contact with him at all.

"Michael Jones," he tells him in response, figuring that telling him his name can’t really do anything at this point.

This isn’t some bullshit television show where a bunch of teenagers decide to fuck around with an Ouija board for fun. He’s not going to own and devour his soul just by knowing his name.

"Cool!" he beams excitedly, "You have a nice name."

"Thanks?"

"So, where are you going?"

"I’m going to find some other people."

"But there’s nobody else here besides me."

"It doesn’t seem realistic that you’re the only person here." Michael rolls his eyes when the boy hops in front of him and walks backwards so that they can face each other while still continuing to move down the street.

"But I am! Aren’t you lucky?"

He grimaces, “I wouldn’t consider it lucky. Now can you leave me alone?”

"Can’t I tag along?" Gavin gives him a sad look, widening his eyes and jutting out his bottom lip pitifully.

Michael rolls his eyes in annoyance, “You’re going to do so regardless of my answer, aren’t you?”

The boy stops pouting and lets out a laugh while grinning, “Yep!”

"Perfect," he mutters sarcastically and rolls his eyes again, "I’ll let you follow me around as long as you agree to stop walking like that. It’s kind of freaking me out."

"Done!" Gavin beams at him, moving so that they’re instead walking side by side again.

The streets are just as empty and bare at the Rooster Teeth office. Not a single person in sight and no signs of movement. It’s so quiet and peaceful, but at the same time kind of creepy. Like when you’re watching a scary movie and everything goes quiet just seconds before a jump-scare.

Things like grass and trees still look alive and healthy though, they just slightly lack some color much like the rest of the world. It’s weird to see everything so dull and washed out because it still looks normal. It just makes it look so  _off_ from normality.

When they pass by his apartment building, Michael stops and looks up at it. There are no lights on in the windows and all of them are closed. It feels like it’s an abandoned building even though it still looks the same as it always does. It’s only a short distance from the Rooster Teeth office. He and his roommates/coworkers actually walked to work this morning.

"What’s that?" Gavin asks, noticing his stare.

"My apartment building."

"Oh, cool! You live there?"

"Yeah."

"All by yourself? You must have a lot of things to fill it with."

Michael rolls his eyes but can’t help but be amused at how little the boy seems to know, “No, it’s an  _apartment building_. Meaning other people live there too.”

"Oh," Gavin nods, but it still doesn’t seem like he fully understands.

*

When they enter the building it’s just as empty as the streets. Michael didn’t see a single person during their short walk across the road from the office to this building.

The bulletin board is still attached to the far wall, and so are the numerous ads and sticky notes with messages scrawled on them. But they’re all blank. Just empty pieces of paper.

Michael even remembers what some of them usually say just because he walks by this so often. The one ad that has a picture of a bicycle along with the price it’s being sold for is now just a blank sheet of paper stapled to the wall with the others.

He pushes it to the back of his brain and begins to walk up the stairs, Gavin following behind him as he curiously looks at everything they walk past.

"Who cleans this place in your world?" he asks.

"I don’t know, why?"

"Do you do it?"

"No, they hire people to come in and clean the hallways and that crap. But it’s everybody else’s responsibility to clean their own apartment if they want."

"Oh," he nods in understanding, "Are you friends with any of the people they hire to clean?"

"No?" Michael stops walking up the flights of stairs to look at him in confusion.

"Why? Are they mean?"

"No, I’ve just never met them. I don’t know every single person that walks into this building."

"You know me! And I just walked into it!"

"That’s not what I…" he sighs and continues his way up the stairs, deciding that it isn’t worth it, "Never mind."

He’s never heard this building so quiet. Usually there are children running around, people playing music or watching television too loudly, or the sound of a vacuum as somebody cleans their house. People leave their doors open a lot on some floors so noise travels throughout the hallway very easily.

When they reach Michael’s floor, they walk along the hallway, looking at the doors but finding that there is no room numbers on any of them. Luckily he’s lived here long enough that he knows which one is his regardless, usually he doesn’t even pay attention to the room numbers anymore.

He turns the door knob, ready to take his key out of his pocket because he’s expecting it to be locked, but it opens easily. He walks in, hoping that he can be greeted with the sounds of Ray playing video games too loudly, Lindsay singing in the shower down the hall, or even the sound of them playfully arguing.

But there’s nothing.

He would think that it’s just an empty apartment if it wasn’t for the fact that all of their belongings are in their usual places. Even the coffee machine is there, sitting right in the middle of the counter where he had it this morning. Usually it’s pushed in against the wall, but he ended up moving it and forgot to put it back.

"This is your home?" Gavin asks curiously, looking around at the various pictures on the walls.

The weird thing is that there’s nothing in them. Most of the photos in the apartment consist of friends or family members, but it’s like they’ve been completely taken out and the only thing left in the photo is the background. Sometimes blurry because in the original picture the focus went to the people inside it.

It’s weird.

"Yeah, it’s usually a lot louder here with my roommates."

"You have roommates?" he questions as he sits down on one of the chairs around the kitchen table.

"Yeah, Lindsay and Ray."

"What are they like?"

As they talk Michael walks around the apartment, swiping a finger across flat surfaces to find them covered in a layer of dust. “Ray does nothing but play video games all day, which is funny because that’s literally what he does all day for a living. Then Lindsay’s always laughing and making silly jokes just to amuse us. Singing annoying pop songs or talking in the voice of her character Ruby Rose. They’re like annoying younger siblings sometimes.”

"They sound nice."

"They are. They’re total assholes, but I love them all the same," he shrugs, peeking into the individual bedrooms to see that the beds are neatly made and look as though they haven’t been touched in years.

"Who else are you friends with?"

"I’m B-F-F’s with everybody I work with," he jokes, "Everybody from the interns, to my boss, to my bosses boss."

The cupboards and fridge, usually stock piled with food, are all empty. He tries to turn on the kitchen faucet but it makes a horrible screeching noise as though it hasn’t been used in years, and no water pours out. Not even a drop.

"Do you like work?"

"Obviously. It’s a job where I get to yell at video games and be an asshole to my friends without any negative consequences."

Michael walks into the living room and Gavin gets up to follow him. When Gavin sees the couch he grins really wide and hops onto it, jumping up and down with ease as though he’s a small child. Dust comes from the couch and gathers in the air around him. Michael doesn’t pay any attention to him and instead grabs the television remote off of the coffee table.

He’s surprised that it actually turns on when he clicks the power button, but all that the screen shows is static. He presses the up-volume button, but no sound comes from the device no matter how long he holds it down. The tiny bar on the bottom shows that the volume is going up, but the silence of the room isn’t interrupted by anything other than the squeaking of the couch as Gavin bounces.

"Michael!" He complains with a whiny tone, "Stop faffing about with your picture machine and come bounce with me!"

"Bounce with you?"

"Yeah! Like this!" he jumps up and down, a huge grin on his face as he does so.

"You look like an overgrown child."

"Don’t we all?"

Michael raises an eyebrow but Gavin just rolls his eyes and makes impatient hand motions from him to join him.

He doesn’t even bother telling him no and instead crosses his arms, figuring that now it’s time to try and get some answers out of the boy. “What is this place?”

Gavin continues to bounce up and down on the couch and raises his arms in a shrug, “It’s your apartment, innit?”

He rolls his eyes in frustration, “I mean this  _world_. This weird place with no other people besides you.”

"I don’t know," he responds, not sounding confused or thoughtful about the question, more like it doesn’t faze him at all. Much like when you ask a small kid about serious adult matters.

"Who are you?"

"I told you my name, didn’t I?"

"Yeah, but who  _are_ you? Where did you come from?”

He shrugs again, “I don’t know.”

"How did you get to this place."

"I don’t-"

"You don’t know," Michael mutters, "Of course you don’t."

"How did  _you_ get to this place?” he asks, and it’s obvious from the grin on his face that he isn’t asking because he’s honestly curious. He’s just trying to throw the question back at him to be a cheeky asshole.

"My friends dared me to because they read it on the internet."

"What’s that?"

"It’s… I don’t fucking know how to explain it," he says, feeling as though he’s speaking to a martian, "But, all I did was press some elevator buttons in a certain combination."

"Cool!"

"You came on when I was on floor five," Michael points out, "In the internet post it said that a girl was supposed to get on."

"Did it?"

"Yeah. Why did  _you_ get on instead of her?”

"We’re under new management," he explains simply, still bouncing in place.

"Really?" Michael questions, "Is that a thing here?"

He laughs out loud, “No, I’m just messing with you. I’m actually the only person here.”

Gavin hops off of the couch and lands in front of Michael, who rolls his eyes at the boy’s childish antics.

"How long have you been here?" he asks, deciding to go back to the previous topic because he’s still trying to squeeze as much information out of him as possible, even though it seems hopeless.

"My whole life, I think."

"How old are you?"

"Around twenty five."

"How long have you been twenty five?"

"My whole life."

My face scrunches up in confusion, “What?”

"I’ve always been twenty five."

"Well…" he’s at a loss for words, trying to determine what question he wants to ask him even though a million are bouncing around his brain, "When’s your birthday?"

"I don’t think I have one."

"Then how do you know that you’re twenty five?"

He shrugs, “I just do.”

"Do you know when you’ll turn twenty six?" he asks. This entire place is really fucking weird, so it’s no surprise that it’s only inhabitant would be really weird too.

"Never."

"Never?"

He gives him a confused look and cocks his head to the side, “You can’t age here, Michael.”

He raises an eyebrow, “Like… At all?”

"Nope."

"How do you know?"

"Because I’ve never aged during the entire time that I’ve been here. I’ve always looked like a twenty five year old boy."

"But you must have been young at some point," he points out, "What about when you were a kid?"

He shrugs without a care, “Don’t remember it.”

"Don’t you think it’s a little odd that you’ve been a twenty five year old man for your whole life?"

"I think a lot of things are odd. My existence is at the top of that list," he states, "But doesn’t everybody think that?"

"Well yeah," Michael murmurs unsurely, "But I don’t think it’s the same thing…"

Gavin doesn’t seem to be paying attention anymore, and instead takes interest in rocking back and forth on his heels.

“Maybe I should go back home,” Michael says, gesturing with his thumb towards the door of the apartment.

His face drops in disappointment, “What? Why?”

“Well, my friends are probably worried about me.”

“But don’t you want to stay for a little while? We can have fun and play games, and  _then_ you can go back,” he suggests, “I’ve never had a friend to play with before!”

“We’re friends?”

“Of course, Michael!” he beams at me, “You’ve already invited me to your apartment and everything!”

For some weird reason it feels like he’s right. Michael isn’t exactly sure when the transition happened, but he doesn’t consider Gavin’s words to be entirely false. Maybe it’s just because he’s the only other person here to talk to, but it’s only been a few minutes, hasn’t it? How long has he even been here now?

Something about the boy is amusing and endearing in an extremely annoying way, it reminds him a lot of his friends back home. If he didn’t give them a chance when he first met them then who knows where he’d even be now.

Besides, Gavin hasn’t acted threatened him or acted in a way to arise suspicion yet. The only things he’s really done so far is act very annoying, childish, and curious. But can more really be expected from somebody that seems to live in such an odd and empty place like this all by themselves?

He’s kind of been taking out all of his annoyance and frustration on Gavin, who honestly hasn’t really done anything. Michael is the one that agreed to do that stupid elevator dare in the first place. It isn’t Gavin’s fault that it worked and that there really is some kind of weird “other world” type place.

Maybe he kind of owes it to Gavin for being a complete asshole to him since they’ve met. Besides, he did purposely ignore the guy for the first few minutes and then called him a demon immediately after.

"Well, maybe I could stay for a little while," he murmurs, and the look of happiness on Gavin’s face is all the reward he needs, “What do you want to do?”

"I’m not sure. What kind of things do you do for fun in your world?"

Michael thinks for a moment, “I don’t know. Play video games, hang out with my friends, drive to-“

Gavin cuts him off immediately with wide eyes, “Drive!?”

"Uh, yeah?"

"You mean like with a car and everything!?"

"Obviously. I’m not gonna go drive around a fucking boat."

Gavin doesn’t pay attention and is too enthralled by the idea of driving, “I’ve always wanted to drive a car!”

"You’ve never done that?"

"No, I don’t know how to use them."

"Nobody’s ever taught you?"

"People get taught how to drive?"

"Usually," Michael nods, "I learned from my parents when I was a teenager."

"Great! Let’s go drive around then."


	3. Chapter 3

"Do you have a car?" Michael asks once they’re walking along the road.

"Yeah," Gavin nods, "Let’s take this one."

He points to a simple green car that’s parked on the side of the road and darts over to it. Michael watches in confusion as he opens up the door easily and hops into the front passenger seat. He sits on top of his own folded legs instead of sitting normally. Like a child that is too short to see over the dashboard.

"Is that yours?" Michael asks.

"No, but we’re going to use it anyway."

"Gavin, that’s stealing! We can’t just take somebody else’s car."

He rolls his eyes, “It’s not stealing if nobody owns it. Besides, green is my favorite color. Now come on, hop in!”

Michael reluctantly walks around the car and gets into the drivers seat, feeling uncomfortable knowing that back in his world somebody probably owns this. So doesn’t that mean that it’s still an owned car? It just feels weird taking it so they can go on joy rides.

"Do cars even work here?" he questions, thinking back to the objects in his apartment that would turn on but didn’t function in any way that they were supposed to.

"Yeah," Gavin raises an eyebrow, "Why wouldn’t they?"

Michael blinks, “Never mind. Do you even have the keys?”

"Keys?"

He sighs and rests against against the back of the seat, “Let me guess, the keys are-“

"Already in the ignition," he grins and Michael sees that he’s right. It’s as though somebody just forgot or left them there. This place just keeps getting weirder and weirder.

"Aren’t you going to put on your seat-belt?" Michael asks, while buckling up his own.

"Nah," Gavin waves it off, "More fun without it."

He rolls his eyes and turns the knob for the radio, not surprised in the slightest when it turns on but no noise comes out of it.

After starting up the car, they drive normally for a few moments. Gavin seems very excited just at the prospect of actually being in a moving vehicle. If he’s never figured out how to work one before, then it’s no surprise that this is his first time being in one.

The roads are bare and empty. It reminds Michael of a post-apocalyptic movie where humanity has fallen and zombies roam the earth at night. He feels like Will Smith in that  _I Am Legend_ movie, except instead of having a dog he has an overly excited British kid as a companion.

Without any warning, Gavin reaches over and begins turning the wheel too. If it weren’t for his seat belt he would have been thrown to the side due to the sharp turn.

"Jesus Christ!" Michael yells, "Gavin, what the fuck! Stop!"

Gavin just laughs loudly and begins turning the wheel more frantically. Which also means that Michael fights back against him harder. It’s like being in a car driven by a toddler. He just turns the steering wheel quickly and harshly every few moments, just narrowly missing other cars or buildings. It reminds him of what everybody’s first play of GTA is like, where you drive around recklessly just for shits and giggles.

"Gavin! Fucking give it up! We’re going to get in a wreck!"

Of course, throughout this time it doesn’t even occur to Michael to just  _stop driving_ and take his foot off the pedal. Maybe Gavin’s stupidity is rubbing off on him.

"No way!" he yells even though Michael would still be able to hear him if he spoke at a normal volume, "Isn’t this fun!?"

Gavin turns away from the road to look at him and laughs at his shocked and horrified face. He takes a hand off of the steering wheel to childishly point at him.

Michael tries to pry Gavin’s other hand off but he has a very strong grip on it, so he just resorts back to screaming profanities at him. He doesn’t pay attention and just continues to laugh, scrunching up his nose in an adorable way as he giggles.

Michael looks back to the road just in time to see that they’re about to hit a building. He doesn’t even have time to yell at him to watch out, so he just quickly tries to pull the wheel harder than him so that they turn just in time to miss it, but they end up crashing into something else regardless.

Everything happens so fast.

Car accidents are so loud. Usually there’s the sound of the collision, car horns, metal scraping against each other, and people’s screams. But right now there’s no background noise, just the harsh sound of impact. Michael is roughly jolted backwards and then forwards again.

He happened to be wearing his seat belt, so he was saved from being thrown out of the window. Unlike Gavin.

The glass shattering makes a noise, but not a loud ear shattering one, more gentle and soothing in nature. Gavin is thrown out of his seat and he smashes through the front windshield his arms coming up to protect his head even though it doesn’t look like it will do much.

It doesn’t last very long, just a few moments of complete and utter chaos, and then everything is quiet again. As though nothing has ever happened. When Michael finally opens his eyes he sees that the hood of the car is slightly bent up and disfigured around the shape of whatever the hell they crashed into. The front window is completely destroyed, and he can see Gavin’s body laying motionless on the pavement.

"Gavin!" he yells, having to fight with the car door to open since it seems to have been bent or dented in an odd way. Eventually it does just before he’s about to give up and climb out of the, now windowless, front windshield.

He yells out the name again as he runs over to the boy and crouches down beside his body. There’s broken glass scattered around him, but none sticking out of his skin. No blood or twisted limbs like you would expect from somebody that’s just been thrown out of a moving car like that.

Michael turns his body so that he’s laying on his back instead of his stomach, and grips his shoulders before shaking him.

"Gavin!?"

His eyelids flutter open and a smile spreads across his face. But it’s not the sad pitiful kind that characters in movies have before they die, it’s the kind a child would have after being told that they’re going to get ice-cream.

"That was awesome, Michael!" he beams, and then sits up.

"Gavin, what the fuck! Are you okay!?"

"Yeah, of course," he’s still smiling through the confusion on his face, like the concern is odd to him, "Why wouldn’t I be?"

"Because you were just thrown from a  _fucking car crash_!” he yells, but Gavin ignores him and instead stands up, no evidence of pain on his face at all.

"Uh huh," he confirms pleasantly, brushing the glass off of the clothing, "And it’s was loads of fun! We should do that again!"

“ _No_! No way!” he helps Michael up from his place on the ground but he’s still not done being angry, “What the fuck was that!? How the hell are you not injured? How am  _I_ not injured?”

He raises his eyebrows at the volume, but he’s still smirking. “Do you really want me to answer that? Because you know what the answer will be.”

 _I don’t know_. Of course.

When he smiles it isn’t creepy. No terrifying empty stares or dead eyes, he looks just like a normal person. Happy and content as though everything is right with the world.

"Gavin, this place is really beginning to freak me out," Michael takes a step away from him, " _You’re_ beginning to freak me out.”

He pouts a little, “I’m not the bad guy, Michael. I haven’t done anything wrong, I’m just trying to have some fun! You’re too serious! Let loose and have some fun every once in a while!”

The previous discussion is easily thrown away when he says those words, and for some explainable reason Michael wants to argue about this subject instead.

"I’m plenty fun," he states, suppressing the urge to stomp his foot and cross his arms.

"Then prove it!"

"Okay, fine, I will! We’ll do whatever kind of stupid thing you want. What do you usually do around here for fun? Play tag and hide-and-go-seek with yourself?" He’s being sarcastic but Gavin doesn’t seem to catch it.

He thinks for a moment before turning with a wild grin and wide eyes as an idea strikes him, “Let’s go jump off of buildings!”

“ _What_!?” Michael yells, surprised in itself that Gavin is able to say something that can actually shock him at this point, “No! Are you insane!?”

"You just said you were fun, and this is  _tons_ of fun, Michael! I promise!”

Before he can protest Gavin grabs him by the arm and roughly pulls him along, eager to get them to his destination as quickly as possibly.

*

"I am not jumping off of a twelve story building, Gavin!" Michael states angrily, his arms folded across his chest.

They’re standing on the roof of an incredibly high building, the entire run up the stairs to get here was filled with Michael yelling protests at him while he’d just laugh and say again how much fun it is.

Gavin is walking along the edge contently, his arms sticking out from his sides. Every few seconds he’ll stumble or loose his balance, and Michael jumps a little in fright that he’ll fall, but he manages to catch himself each time.

How has his life possibly led up to this moment? Standing on the top of a building as a strange boy tries to convince him to jump off.

"But it’s fun!" Gavin argues, moving away from the edge and coming to stand in front of him.

"What about this could possibly be fun!?"

"Do you want me to go first?"

"No! I don’t want either of us to jump to our deaths. Are you fucking insane!?"

Surviving a car accident is one thing, but jumping off of a twelve story building is a completely different story. Are they really going to celebrate living through one life threatening situation by putting themselves into another?

"But _, Michael_ ,” he whines, childishly stomping his foot.

"No."

He furrows his eyebrows and glares. Michael returns the favor and they just stand there for a few moments, waiting for the other to give in. Eventually Gavin’s face breaks out into a grin and it momentarily alarms Michael because he was expecting him to frown and then complain about his lack of cooperation for the rest of the day.

"Fine," he states easily, giving a nonchalant shrug of the shoulders. Michael’s glare turns suspicious, but he decides against pushing the issue. Gavin doesn’t exactly fit under the category of ‘normal,’ so odd behavior like this shouldn’t be too surprising to him now.

"Good," he nods slowly, "Now let’s get off this roof and-  _Gavin_!”

He screams the last part when he’s forcibly pushed to the edge of the building. Gavin is too quick and forceful to really try to stop him. It’s only when there’s no more ground beneath his feet that he squeezes his eyes shut.

He can feel the harsh wind against his face as he falls, the fear exploding in his brain, and the horrifying realization that he’s just been pushed off of a twelve story building with nothing surrounding it but concrete and other solid surfaces.

He’s struck with the impulse to yell or scream. Like how characters do in movies when they’ve fallen off of cliffs or out of an airplane. Making noise won’t save him in any way. It won’t make the landing any softer or slow down the speed at which he’s falling. It won’t make him magically float back up to the safety of the roof. But there’s something comforting about it, as though alerting the world around him that ‘ _Yes, I’m in danger!_ ’

Everything other than the sound of his screams is so quiet. The loud of noise of wind passing by his ears doesn’t exist. The only proof that he’s actually falling is when he opens his eyes and sees the ground getting closer.

He immediately gives up on watching and squeezes his eyes shut again, not wanting to see the impact before he feels it.

It never comes.

When he opens his eyes slowly, he realizes that he’s just lying on the sidewalk. The ground feels hard beneath him, but he couldn’t feel himself actually hitting it. The rough pavement doesn’t even give him road-rash.

His eyes widen as he just lays there in complete and utter shock. His brain is just trying to process the fact that he was just pushed off of a fucking twelve story building… and that he’s  _completely fine_.

He flinches slightly when a pair of feet jump down next to him and Gavin’s laughter fills the empty air.

"Didn’t I tell you?" he grins and holds out a hand which Michael reluctantly takes and lets him pull him up off of the ground, "Fun, right?"

"I…" he can’t even speak, his knees feel weak and his brain is just trying to process this and sort it into a realistic category.

Gavin’s expression turns to one of concern and he moves his face incredibly close, “Are you okay?”

Michael pushes him away and takes in a deep breath even though it does nothing for him. Just to confirm what just happened has actually happened, he looks up to see that the building really is that high and the fall really should have killed him.

Yet he’s here.  _Alive_.

Gavin jumped too. Landed perfectly on his feet, and is also  _alive_.

"I’m fine," he manages to get out, nodding his head slightly.

Gavin beams at him, “Perfect! Now, wasn’t that fun?”

Michael’s about to yell at him. Tell him that he’s a fucking lunatic and then punch him in the face. But something inside just realizes that he doesn’t want to do any of that. Maybe it’s just the adrenaline rush of jumping off of a building and not dying, but all of the anger and shock just completely melts away.

"Yeah…" a breathy laugh escapes his lips as he realizes it, "It actually was!"

Gavin jumps up and down in delight and grabs him by the shoulders, “Want to do it again!?”

Michael’s entire body feels giddy just thinking about it. “Fuck yeah!”

He lets out a squeak of excitement as he grabs Michael’s hand to begin pulling him back into the building so they can run up the stairs to do this all over again.

"Let’s go!"


	4. Chapter 4

"There’s no sunset," Michael points out as they walk aimlessly down the empty street.

They’ve finished jumping off of buildings at some point but neither can really remember how long ago it was. It didn’t lose it’s fun value, Gavin just decided it was time to stop. Michael can’t even count how many times they’ve jumped and gleefully laughed they’re asses off again and again. Then they’d pick a different building to jump off, simply judging it on how much taller or shorter it was than the previous one. Then proceed to jump off of that one a bunch of times too.

It’s crazy how much fun you can have in an empty world with only one person to keep you company.

"What’s a sunset?"

It isn’t all that surprising that he doesn’t know what that is either, “It’s what happens when the sun goes down. The sky turns different colors before going dark.”

"Sounds pretty."

"It’s weird that there’s no sun or moon in the sky," Michael murmurs, only now realizing that he has no idea how much time has passed since he’s gotten here, "What time is it?"

"I don’t think there is any concept of time here."

That almost confuses him for a moment until he remembers where he is and what they’ve literally just stopped doing. You need to learn to push all common sense and logic from your brain when you’re in a place like this.

"Not at all?"

"Nu-uh."

"How long have I been here?"

"I’m not sure, I suppose in your time it would equate to probably," he lifts his hand to his chin and thinks for a few moments, "…Four days?"

"Four days!?" his eyebrows raise in alarm, but it doesn’t take him long to recover, "So the sky never gets any darker or lighter?"

"No."

"Well, how do you know when to go to sleep?"

"I don’t."

"So you just go whenever you’re tired?"

"No, I mean I don’t need to sleep. I just don’t get tired at all."

"Never?"

"Nope."

"You  _never_ sleep?”

"No, should I?"

"That’s really… weird. Don’t you think that’s odd?"

"I’ve never really thought about it before."

After spending time with him, Michael has learned not to question the lack of things Gavin knows about his own world. If you can even call it his world. He seems to know just as much about it as Michael himself does.

"So is this what you do all day?" he asks, "Just have fun and do whatever you want?"

"Yeah, basically. It’s more fun with another person though.”

His boyish charm shines through his smile and his eyes are warmer than any ridiculous sunset. It’s like he’s the life of this world, it’s so dull and quiet but he gives it warmth and life.

"You remind me of Peter Pan," Michael points out.

"Who’s that? A friend of yours?"

He snickers, “No, he’s just a character from a book. He was a kid that never wanted to grow up, and he lived in this world called Never Land.”

"Do you think this place is like Never Land?"

"No. Never Land was filled with pirates, mermaids, and fairies. Not empty streets with no people to fill them. I don’t know much about it though, I only remember reading the books and watching the movies when I was a young kid."

Gavin’s eyes widen and shine with excitement, “You were a kid once, Michael!?”

"Yeah, of course."

"What was it like?"

Michael looks at him in confusion, “What do you mean? I was just a younger version of what I look like now. Probably a little more bratty and childish, but still Michael Jones.”

He giggles excitedly at the idea, “I bet you were a cute kid.”

"I guess you could say that," he smiles, wishing that he had a picture to show him, "I had chubby little freckled cheeks and my hair was even curlier."

Gavin squeals at the thought, “You sound utterly adorable!”

Michael laughs at his happiness. Gavin’s like a little kid trapped inside of an adults body, always eager to have the most fun possible and talk about the most childish subjects. Asking dumb questions, but not knowing the answers to the simple ones that are directed towards him.

"So you don’t remember being a kid?" Michael asks, still trying to get down the basics of this place and Gavin’s knowledge of it.

"No."

"Can you die?"

It seems like such an odd question to ask somebody, but they’ve spent a long time just jumping off of very high distances and they didn’t even gain a scratch from it. It’s obvious that if this were a video game, fall damage wouldn’t be a cause of death for the character.

"What’s that?"

"You don’t know what death is?"

"No," he shakes his head, "Is it something bad?"

Michael looks away, not wanting to break his child-like illusion by introducing serious subjects to his brain. “Don’t worry about it. It’s nothing.”

"Okay," Gavin smiles, allowing the subject to be dropped completely without any hassle.

He’s such a weird person, but something about him is also interesting. It’s like he’s literally up to do or talk about anything as long as it’s fun and exciting. But then again, dangerous things seem to be more fun than hazardous in this place.

"How are you sure that there are no other people around here?" Michael asks, realizing that he’s been subconsciously taking peeks down the empty alleyways they pass for any signs of life "It must be just as big as my world."

It’s an odd concept to think of this world and the other world as two completely different places. They look the exact same other than the obvious differences.

"I’m not sure, I’ve never really seen another person here," he muses, holding his chin in his hand.

"So, am I the first you’ve ever met?"

"I don’t think so," he murmurs, thinking deeply about it, "I feel like I would remember meeting other people. And I feel like I definitely have at some point, but I don’t really remember. I can’t recall any appearances or names."

"You must have met others because you would have been more shocked when you met me, right?"

"Yeah, I was rather calm, wasn’t I?"

"Yeah, you were," I say, "Almost as though you were expecting me to be there."

"Hm," is the only thing he responds with.

"What were you doing before you’d gotten into the elevator?"

"I can’t remember."

"Really?" Michael sighs with exasperation, "You don’t remember much, do you?"

"I guess not," he grins.

Michael shoves his shoulder playfully and Gavin lets out a disapproving squeal which he just laughs at when he almost falls over.

"So, where are we even walking to?" he asks.

"My place."

"You have a place?"

"Yeah," Gavin nods, "I like to go there to hang out. It’s nice to get away from the noise and be by yourself for a while."

Michael raises an eyebrow at that statement but don’t bother asking any questions.

*

"So this is like your house?" Michael asks.

"I suppose you could call it that," he shrugs, "I like to switch it up a lot and stay in other places too, but I’m currently in this house right now."

"Why this one?"

"Because it’s so pretty!"

He studies the furniture and decorations. None of it reflects Gavin or his personality, which makes sense because this technically isn’t his house. Instead of leaving Ikea with a shopping cart filled to the brim with “Do-it-yourself” furniture, Gavin gets to bounce around to empty households and simply choose which one he currently likes most at the moment.

This one is nice.

The people that actually live here seem to be very much into abstract art judging by the various paintings on the walls. It makes the room feel brighter and colorful even though it’s typically just as dull as the rest of the world.

"Do you know who lives here in your world?" Gavin asks, walking across the cushions on the couch instead of sitting on them.

"No," Michael smirks, "Contrary to popular belief, I do not know every single person in the world."

"That’s a bummer," he hops down from his standing position and lands into a sitting one onto the middle of the couch, "Why not?"

"Because there’s so many, it’d be impossible to meet them all."

"Really?" his eyes are wide, "How many are there? A hundred?"

"More like seven billion."

"Whoa…" he murmurs, "Do you know all of their names?"

"No," Michael laughs, "I think that would be too many names to remember."

He nods in understanding, “I guess you’re right. I don’t even think I could count that high.”

"No surprise there."

Gavin doesn’t hear the comment and instead jumps up from his spot on the couch, “Come on! I want to show you my favorite room!”

He pulls him along to a closed door and opens it proudly. Michael’s expecting it to be some kind of child’s room or entertainment studio, but instead it’s a-

"Bathroom?"

"Yeah!" he beams, "Isn’t it fancy?"

He has to admit that it  _is_ fancy. It has marble counter tops, tile floor, and a claw foot bathtub. Little details that you’d expect to find in a rich person’s bathroom. It’s just as nice as the rest of the house. He turns the sink tap just to test it, and he’s not surprised when no water comes out of it.

He looks up, into the mirror, and blinks in confusion when nothing stares back at him.

"There’s no reflection," he points out, entranced by how the mirror shows everything in the room except for Gavin and himself. It’s like in the photographs back in his apartment. They’ve just been completely wiped out as though they’re invisible.

"What’s a reflection?"

"It shows you what you look like."

"I’ve never heard of it," he murmurs, looking into the mirror, but not fully understanding why Michael’s so intrigued by it.

"You don’t know what you look like?"

"Nope," he shakes his head, "Do you?"

He stops himself from saying yes, “Uh, no. Actually I don’t.”

Gavin hums and turns away from the mirror, deciding that it’s boring and not worth staring at for so long. Michael looks away too when he hears him let out a loud and excited gasp.

"This is my bathtub!" he beams and hops into it, sitting down as though he’s actually taking a bath and rests his head against the rim.

"What are you doing?"

He smiles, “Sitting in my bathtub.”

"What do you need a bathtub for? There’s no water."

"It’s for resting."

"I thought you said you didn’t need to sleep."

"I don’t, but sometimes it’s nice to just have some peace and quiet every once in a while. Kick back and relax, ya’know?"

This entire world is peaceful and quiet, it’s like everything you can possibly do is relaxing and soothing.

"Why a bathtub? Why not a bed or something?"

"Because beds are soft. Bathtubs are nice and solid," he grins, patting the porcelain with the palm of his hand, "Don’t ‘ya think?"

"I suppose," Michael doesn’t bother pointing out how his explanation doesn’t really make any sense. He’s learned during his short time here to just go with the flow.

"Come on," Gavin gestures with his hand.

He smirks, “You want me to sit in a bathtub with you?”

"Yeah, it’s fun!"

"Is that your reasoning behind doing anything?"

"Of course," he nods, "Why else would you ever want to do anything?"

Michael doesn’t answer and instead sits in the tub, across from him, his head is able to lean against the wall from this side and there’s no faucet in the way like on Gavin’s. It’s slightly cramped with two people, but there’s just enough room for them to sit in it together with their legs sprawled out.

"You know, most people avoid doing dangerous things like getting in car accidents and jumping off of high buildings," Michael points out as he tries to situate himself comfortably against the hard porcelain.

"Why?" Gavin questions, his face scrunching up in confusion, "Don’t they realize how much fun it is?"

He shakes his head, “They avoid dangerous things because it’s  _dangerous_. You can get seriously and permanently hurt because of them.”

"I like you, Michael," Gavin grins at him, "You worry about silly things as though they’re important."

As though death or serious injury are just subjects to be brushed off and have no lasting effects. But he can’t blame him, he seems to have no actual understanding of that because it truly doesn’t seem to exist here.

"I like you too," Michael murmurs, "Even though you’re a reckless idiot."

And he really does. The childish charming boy just manages to worm his way into your heart and make you forget about everything else. When he smiles it’s like this empty world suddenly has meaning and value.

A comfortable silences passes between them for a few moments. Michael assumes they’d only just met a few hours ago but it already feels like he’s known him for longer. Like they’re close friends that never hesitate to jokingly insult one another or get nervous over awkward silences.

Being with Gavin is peaceful, much like how the rest of the world is.

"What’s sleeping like?" he asks, breaking the quiet of the moment.

"I don’t know how to explain it," Michael says, feeling as though they’ve both used the phrase  _I don’t know_ over a million times today, “You just close your eyes and lay there quietly until your body slowly lets you fall into unconsciousness.”

"Is it painful?"

"No, it’s more relaxing. Like you’re recharging your body after a long and hard day."

"It sounds nice," he murmurs.

"And you’ve never done it before?"

"No, I’ve never really tried," he thinks about it, "Do you think I could try now?"

Michael snickers, “You don’t need my permission, dude.”

"Are you going to try to sleep too?"

"I don’t feel tired, but sure, I will if you want to."

Instead of climbing out of the bathtub like Michael thinks he’s going to, he switches around his placement so that instead of leaning against the opposite side of the tub, he’s leaning against his new friend. Letting his feet hang out the other end as he rests his head on Michael’s chest.

Michael lets out a laugh, “What are you doing?”

"Trying to get comfortable," he responds, looking up with a grin on his face, "You need to be comfortable to sleep, don’t you?"

"Yeah, but…" he’s going to continue but it’s obvious that Gavin isn’t listening anymore because he rests his head back on his chest and closes his eyes.

Although everything here is quiet and peaceful, it doesn’t compare to the look of Gavin as he practically lays on him, breathing deeply as he attempts to fall into sleep. Michael’s not sure if it will work, or if they’ll just spend a few hours here in a bathtub. But he wraps his arms around him anyways to hold him closer.

"Good night, Michael."

"Night, Gav."

When everything is so quiet, it’s no surprise that the tiniest noises are amplified. He listens to Gavin’s soft and steady breathing as the boy lays against him, so peaceful and calm. He spends so much time bouncing around and grinning that it’s nice to just see him like this.

Gavin is so trusting. They may have only known each other for a short while (Michael still isn’t exactly sure how long he’s been here) and he’s practically sleeping on top of him. When he’s completely defenseless like this it would be so easy to harm him in some way.

Not that he ever would, it’s just another thing to add to the list of weird things about Gavin Free. Michael figures that even if he wanted to, it wouldn’t hurt him regardless. If jumping off a building or being thrown through the front wind shield of a car does nothing to you, then he’s such some physical abuse from another person wouldn’t do much damage.

He momentarily panics when Gavin’s breathing slows. No longer coming out in soft and steady pants because he no longer appears to be breathing at all. _Fuck,_ Michael thinks to himself, S _leep kills him? Really?_ That’s  _what’s lethal here?_

But the quiet that fills the air from the absence of the boy’s breathing is soon replaced with the heavy thumps of his heartbeat. A strong rhythmic pattern that reminds Michael of a drum. Just to make sure, he takes Gavin’s wrist and checks his pulse to confirm that the boy is still indeed alive. He feels the gentle movement beneath his thumb and wants to sigh out of relief.

Didn’t kill him. Thank God.

After pressing a soft kiss to the top of Gavin’s head, he rests his own against the edge of the tub. He scans the room once more, still hesitant to trust this odd place, but eventually the sound of Gavin’s heartbeat lulls him into a deep and heavy sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

When Michael wakes up it takes him a few moments to remember where he is. It isn’t very often that one wakes up in a strange and unfamiliar world, in a bathtub.

But he’s also confused because he’s alone.

Gavin is no longer sleeping soundly against his chest or even in the bathroom at all.

"Gavin?" he calls out, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and he begins to climb out of the tub. He expects his muscles to ache after sleeping sitting up in a hard bathtub, but he feels completely fine.

There’s no response to his calls. The bathroom is empty and quiet, but his words don’t even echo back to him. He calls out the name again as he leaves the small room, but the rest of the house looks to be just as empty.

Fuck.

Panic begins to set in.

He’s still not placing his full trust into this place, and the fact that Gavin has suddenly disappeared does not leave good thoughts in his brain. It doesn’t seem unlikely that he could just fade away and cease to exist.

Maybe he’s being ridiculous, but this world is odd. He’s finding himself becoming less and less shocked by the strange occurrences and is beginning to accept them as the norm.

As he searches the rooms in the house, he begins to consider leaving and wandering around the city to find him. But what if Gavin comes back to look for him and finds that he’s just gone? Besides, he doesn’t exactly fancy going out to explore this place on his own. It seems safe enough, but something is still unsettling about being without Gavin.

He walks into the kitchen and doesn’t even have time to scan the room before something else happens.

"Think fast!" Gavin yells and Michael turns just in time to see a knife being thrown his way.

He instantly gasps and flinches but doesn’t have enough time to actually attempt to dodge it. His eyes are squeezed shut as he waits for the pain of a knife piercing his flesh, but it never comes.

Much like when he was thrown from the rooftop and was awaiting the impact of the concrete against his body. He only opens his eyes when he hears the soft noise of the knife hitting the floor.

"Gavin!" he yells, his eyes wide as he looks up to find the boy not standing in the kitchen like a normal person, but instead sitting on top of the fridge. His legs dangle down in front of the doors and he swings them back and forth childishly. He has another knife in his hands, and a huge grin on his face as he laughs.

"That was funny! You should have seen your face!"

"You just threw a  _knife_ at me!”

Gavin rolls his eyes playfully, “It’s just a knife, it wouldn’t have hurt you. I needed something to throw at you and that happened to be the closest thing.”

"Well it’s  _dangerous_ ,” he stresses out the word with annoyance.

"Not here!"

As if to prove it he throws the other one, but Michael ducks just in time for it to miss and hit the wall behind him before falling to the floor.

“ _Gavin_!”

"Fine, fine," he snickers, "I won’t do it again. Sorry."

Michael rolls his eyes, picks up the knife from the floor, and then places it safely back onto the counter top.

He wants to let out a sigh of relief that the boy is okay and still here, but it’s difficult when he keeps scaring him like this. He decides to push it to the back of his head. He did kind of overreact, it isn’t like he could have gotten hurt from it at all. He scrunches his face up in confusion because he realizes that Gavin is still sitting on top of the fridge.

"What…" he asks, trying to imagine what the answer could possibly be, "What are you doing up there?"

"I like it," Gavin responds simply.

"Bathtubs and refrigerators? That’s your thing?"

"Yup!" he beams, and leaps down, landing perfectly on his feet as though he’s done this numerous times. "Have you never done it before?"

"Sleep in bathtubs and sit on fridges? No, can’t say that I have," he smiles when Gavin jaw drops at the very thought.

"Seriously? What a boring life you must lead, mate."

"I wouldn’t say boring, just…" he tries to think of the correct word, "Safe."

"All I heard was  _boring,_ " Gavin grins.

"It’s not boring, you just can’t do stupid reckless things and get away with it scot-free."

"Things like this?"

Before he can process Gavin’s words, he’s picked up the knife off of the counter and thrown it at him again. He feels it hit his arm but there’s no sharp or painful impact that one should normally feel from a knife. It just simply falls to the floor again as though it were a harmless child’s toy.

"Gavin!" he yells, clenching his teeth angrily.

The boy throws his head back with laughter and runs out of the door, obviously wanting to start a game. Annoying Michael seems to be the way to do it.

"You can’t catch me!" Gavin cries while Michael chases after him. They run out of the front door and down the empty street. Both laughing uncontrollably as though this is the funniest thing ever.

It’s difficult to hold a grudge against somebody that’s so simple minded. It isn’t that Gavin’s overly stupid, he’s just unaware and happily oblivious to his own dangerous actions. But it’s perfectly fine for him because no matter what kind of crazy thing he wants to do, it can’t hurt him either way.

Despite all of the running around he’d done earlier (jumping off the buildings and climbing the stairs) and now, he’s never once found himself out of breath here. He’s never had to stop for a moment to catch his breath or calm his heart down from beating too fast. No stitches to cramp his sides or overwhelming urge to take a break for a few moments.

Michael isn’t any athlete in any sense of the word, he works out every once in a while, but not enough to the point where he never gets winded or tired.

"Gotcha!" he cries out as he grabs hold of the back of the boy’s shirt. Gavin isn’t so quick to give up though and fights against him, still trying to get away while laughing loudly.

Michael’s the stronger of the two and just ends up tackling him to the pavement, knowing that neither of them can really get injured from the rough play. Instead of putting him in a choke hold or attacking him even more, he instead begins tickling the boy’s sides.

Gavin squirms underneath him and loudly giggles like a small child when he finally yells out, “You win! You win! I give up!”

"Say  _Michael Jones is the coolest person I know_!” he demands playfully.

"But Michael Jones is the  _only_ person I know!”

"What’s that" he feigns innocence, "You want me to tickle you more?"

Gavin’s eyes widen with playful horror before he begins attacking his sides again with his fingers.

"No! No! Michael Jones is the coolest person I know!" he manages to get out through the laughter.

He finally lets Gavin go and gets off of him, offering a hand to the boy who’s still holding back snickers.

"That was fun!" he beams.

"It was," Michael agrees, and then playfully pushes him, "Even though you’re still a little shit for throwing knives at me."

"Oh, don’t be such a party pooper. What do you want to do now?" Gavin asks him happily, reaching out to playfully poke his shoulder.

"I don’t know."

"Why don’t we go back to your apartment?" Gavin suggests, "Your couch was rather bouncy. Fun for jumping!"

"Yeah, sure," Michael nods his head in agreement and they continue walking.

On the way, he doesn’t look down the empty alley ways anymore. He doesn’t peek into the parked cars or look through any windows for signs of life.

Instead he focuses on how calm and soothing his surroundings are. How everything just feels right. No sun shining in his eyes, no car horns, no people yelling at each other. Just Gavin.

They pass by buildings that he no longer remembers by their names in his world, only by the description of ‘ _Gavin and I jumped off of that one for five hours yesterday_!’ or ‘ _We played tag and chased each other around that one for two days straight_ ’. The amount of time in the descriptions seems right to him even though he has no way to prove or disprove it.

They fill the empty air with mindless chatter and dumb jokes, walking until Gavin notices that they’re doing it aimlessly.

"I thought we were going to your apartment?"

"Oh," Michael’s eyebrows come together in confusion as he looks around, "Ah… Do you remember what direction it was in?"

"I think it’s back that way," Gavin points down the familiar street they’d walked down last time, "It’s near your office building, right?"

"Um," Michael scratches his head and wracks his brain for the correct answer, "I think."

"Well let’s go then!" Gavin beams, pulling him along by his hand as they run down the deserted street.

They’re walking past the Rooster Teeth office building when Gavin points it out, “That’s where you work, right?”

"Yeah."

"With your friends, interns, boss, and bosses boss?"

Michael smirks at the dumb words he used earlier, “Yes, all of them.”

"Is it fun?"

He recalls brief memories of running around the office building with nerf guns, eating a ghost pepper, chugging barbecue sauce, and other ridiculous things. It’s like a more toned down version of the things he’s been doing with Gavin. Just as ridiculous, but a little more life threatening and dangerous.

"Of course."

Gavin hums with amusement at the idea of working and having a job.

They continue on down the road, walking past the Rooster Teeth building and a weird knot twists in Michael’s stomach as he steps further and further away from it. Gavin fills the quiet air with his rambling, talking about anything he can think of. It’s mainly nonsensical questions that make little to zero sense, but Michael laughs at them anyways.

It isn’t until they’re actually walking up the stairs in his apartment building that Gavin says it, “Tell me about Lindsay and Ray again.”

Gavin waits patiently for him to respond but Michael just furrows his eyebrows and looks at him with slight confusion, “Who?”

"Lindsay and Ray," he repeats, "Your friends?"

It’s silent between them for a few moments as Michael tries to piece together that word and the names in his head. Trying to make the connection on why they sound familiar until finally it hits him and he begins nodding with realization, “Oh yeah.”

"Do you not remember them?"

"No, no, of course I do. Lindsay and Ray. My friends. I live here with them." It’s like his brain is just blocking out the information of his friends and he can’t access it.

"Tell me about them," Gavin says, still smiling softly as though he doesn’t even notice how horrified Michael is by his lack of memory.

"Um, Ray plays video games a lot. And I think he wears glasses," he tries to think of more, but it’s like his brain is just blocking out the information.

Gavin seems to accept this though and just nods happily, “What about Lindsay?”

"She has red hair and um, she does the voice for the character uh," he racks his brain for the name of the anime character she plays.

"Oh! Oh!" Gavin bounces excitedly and raises his hand into the air, " _I_ know! I do!”

"No, I remember it," he shakes his head with annoyance as he tries to think about it, "Something about the color red?"

"Ruby!"

"I knew that!"

Gavin lets out a laugh, “You did not, you silly sausage!”

"I did so! Why would I forget such important things about my own friends?"

It’s a confusing concept to him. It’s like Lindsay and Ray are slowly slipping from his memory and he’s desperately trying to grip onto anything that can remind him of them. In fact, he’s doing that with almost everything.

He hasn’t even realized how much he’s forgotten about his life back in his own world. During the time he’s spent here it’s like he’s thought about it less and less. The good memories of there being replaced with the ones from here.

"Fuck," he murmurs, "What’s happening to me?"

"What do you mean?"

They’re still standing in the hallway outside of his apartment building but he begins pacing subconsciously. Unable to stay in one spot as his brain goes into overdrive trying to force memories from the dark corners that they’ve hidden themselves into. Gavin giggles and dramatically stomps behind him, completely oblivious to his minor freak out and just wants to make a game out of it.

The last thing he can really remember clearly is the elevator and meeting Gavin on it. Even old things like his childhood and his own family are unassailable and he wants to rip his hair out with frustration.

It’s so frustrating because it feels like he should remember it. Like these are important facts but his brain is just pushing them away and wants him to forget all about them.

But he doesn’t want to. He loves his friends and family. He loves his life back there. He doesn’t want to forget about them and act as though they don’t exist. As though they aren’t still in some other weird alternate dimension waiting for him to return.

And that scares him.

His brain is throwing away all of those old memories so that he can make way for these new ones. Almost like it’s completely disregarding his previous life in favor of this one. But this isn’t his life. He doesn’t belong here. This is  _Gavin’s_ world and he’s just a guest in it, isn’t he? How long has he even been here now? Long enough to say that he lives here too? Long enough to consider himself a resident of this place?

He isn’t sure when he made the transition from visitor to full time occupant.

Now as he looks around it doesn’t look so normal to him anymore.

It’s creepy and eerie in a way that he hadn’t noticed it before. His mind has been blocking it out the entire time and trying to convince him that this is what the world is supposed to look like. You’re supposed to be alone, you’re supposed to be able to survive dangerous situations, you’re supposed to do whatever you want.

Now just being here makes him feel uncomfortable. As though he’s in somebody else’s skin besides his own. Like he doesn’t belong and this entire place is trying to scream that fact at him.

But at the same time it’s also pulling him in. Constantly reminding him of the happiness that fills his head whenever he sees Gavin. Whispering to him that he should stay here forever and give in to the temptation.

He can only compare it to the feeling of dunking your head in cold water. He hadn’t even noticed how content and normal it felt to be here with Gavin, almost as though he’s spent a lifetime just being here with him. And now it’s all catching up to him, and it feels both awful and uncomforting all at once.

He stops pacing and turns around to look at Gavin, who gives him an innocent smile in return.

"I’m beginning to forget things."

"Like what?"

"Like my friends, family, and life back in my world."

"Is that bad?" Gavin asks, cocking his head slightly to the side in confusion.

Michael stops for a moment and just stares at him, once again realizing how out of touch Gavin seems to be with the rest of the world. “Yeah, it is.”

"Oh."

"I think I should go back," Michael murmurs quietly. So quiet that Gavin shouldn’t have been able to hear it from the short distance he was away.

He turns with wide expressive eyes, quickly closing the space between them so that their faces are almost touching. Michael’s used to his lack of understanding when it comes to personal space and it doesn’t bother him anymore. “Back?”

"Yeah," he nods slowly, wishing that he could take back the words as he says them. Something deep within him is screaming at him to stop and just stay here with Gavin.

"Back to your world?"

He nods his head, ignoring the heavy thumping his heart does when Gavin’s face drops in disappointment.

"Are you sure?"

No.

"Yes."

He can see the pain in Gavin’s eyes for only a fraction of a moment before it’s replaced with a fake smile and happiness again.

The only thing in this world that seems consistent is Gavin himself. He’s always there, and he’s always happy. But there’s something so different about the boy he’s looking at now. He isn’t the same one that sleeps in bathtubs for fun or could spend hours jumping up and down on a couch. He’s sad. Empty. Alone in this world that was made to be lonely.

And Michael still isn’t sure if he wasn’t to leave it or not. Because if he leaves it then that means he’s also leaving Gavin all by himself. It wasn’t until this moment that he even considering the fact that Gavin might not actually like it here. That meeting Michael was an amazing treat because he finally had some company.

He wants to voice all of this, but instead the only words that spill out of his mouth are, “Are you okay?”

Gavin doesn't answer the question and instead he just changes the subject. “Do you know how to get back to the elevator?”

Michael thinks about it for a moment and tries to ignore the false content look on Gavin’s face as he does so. He remembers that the elevator is in the office, and they’d only just walked past it a few moments ago, but for some unexplained reason he doesn't think he’d ever be able to find his way there on his own.

"No."

The corners of Gavin's lip twitches with forced humor but Michael can still see the sadness behind it. "They never do."


	6. Chapter 6

When they step into the Rooster Teeth building, Michael feels as though he’s never even been there before.

For the last few years he’s been here almost everyday, and it’s terrifying that he’s able to walk by down and have no idea what’s behind them anymore. It only helps to confirm to himself that leaving is a good idea.

He needs to get back to a world where everything makes sense again. A place where everything is consistent and logical. He doesn’t want to forget his friends and family. He doesn’t want to forget what it feels like to be surrounded by other people and hear more than one to speak you at a time.

Gavin does a good job of talking so much that it makes up for the absence, but it still isn’t the same. Even now he continues on, speaking just to fill the empty quietness that rings through the entire building along with the rest of this world. But you can still hear the sadness in it.

They pass by one room and Michael stops following to peek inside of it. He opens up the door and is met with a green painted room with multiple desks and computers inside. It’s messy and blank papers are scattered everywhere all over the place. A shelf across from the door is filled with plastic cases but he doesn’t bother going over to look at them. Something about the room feels familiar in an eerie kind of way.

He’s either supposed to know everything about this room, or nothing at all. In fear of it being the latter, he closes the door instead of walking through it.

"What’s that?" Gavin asks.

"I’m not sure."

"Do you think you’ll remember when you go back?"

"I hope so," he murmurs, still looking at the door.

Gavin smiles softly and puts a hand on his shoulder to guide him away, “Come on, I found the elevator.”

"The same one?"

"Yeah, up on the tenth floor, right?"

"I think."

"I like this building," Gavin muses as they begin their walk up the stairs, "It’s really big and open. Lots of pretty colors too."

Michael doesn’t fully remember what the building looks like back in his own world, but he knows that this one is very dull and lifeless in comparison. As he looks around he can almost imagine seeing the familiar faces of people that he just can’t place at the moment. He can see them running around, can hear their loud laughter, and it only scares him more and more that he’s remembering less and less about it.

"I really like it too," he murmurs in response, not wanting to leave Gavin feeling like he’s talking to a wall. He’s just got so much buzzing through his mind at once and his head is beginning to hurt with it all.

"Is it okay if I live here for a bit?"

"Yeah, I don’t see why not," Michael smirks at the thought of Gavin spending his days obnoxiously running around the hallways and loudly disrupting the peace and quiet with nobody there to stop him. "But there isn’t a bathtub."

"I’ll make do." Gavin grins at him.

It isn’t until they’re standing in front of the elevators that Gavin brings it up again. The doors open when Gavin presses the  _down_ button and the sight of it fills Michael will dread and worry.

Just a normal elevator. Nothing scary or terrifying about it. Not something you would expect to bring you to different worlds or separate you from a new found friend.

Gavin’s smile also fades into a frown at the sight of the opened elevator. Michael can’t place it exactly, but he seems uneased. Like it’s bringing him discomfort or reminding him of bad times.

"Do you really have to go?" he manages to say.

Michael doesn’t want to answer. He’d rather just get in the elevator and leave without this horrible goodbye that’s going to make him want to stay even more than he already does.

"Yes."

"But why? I thought you liked it here."

"I do."

Gavin’s face looks painfully hurt as he looks down at his feet, “I thought you liked me.”

"I do!" Michael repeats, more forcefully this time, reaching up to grip Gavin by the shoulders, "I do like you, Gavin, more than you can possibly understand. I _w_ _ant_ to stay here with you and spend my days having fun like this.”

"Then why don’t you?"

"I just…" he fails to voice a legitimate reason, "I can’t."

"Because you miss your world?"

It takes him a long time to answer but Gavin doesn’t speak a word until he finally responds with,”Yeah.”

"But isn’t this one better? This one you can do anything you want! You can jump off of buildings, have knife fights, drive recklessly, and sleep in bathtubs!" Gavin says, excitement growing in his eyes as he lists things off.

"I can do all of those things back at home, I’m just smart enough not to."

"What’s stopping you?"

Michael shrugs, “Consequences?”

"Well here there  _are_ no consequences, Michael.”

He doesn’t respond.

"Does that scare you?" Gavin continues.

"No," Michael shakes his head slowly, "Should it?"

Gavin shrugs, “I suppose. Most people do. But I think  _you_ actually understand. This is just a place where you can do whatever you want. Have fun and play all day with no repercussions! No mistakes or accidents that will prevent you from having the most fun possible!”

"I know," he nods his head sadly, hating the words as they come out of his mouth, "But I have to go back."

"Wouldn’t you rather just stay here with me?" Gavin asks softly, reaching out to interlock their fingers, "Don’t you like it here?"

Michael squeezes Gavin’s hand a little for emphasize, “I do. I like it here a lot. And I really like you too.”

"Then what’s the problem?"

"I don’t know. I just feel like I don’t belong," Michael tries to explain, but he’s aware that it doesn’t make any sense. "Like this is your world and not mine."

He just speaks without even thinking about the words, feeling like he’s reading off of a script or just going through the motions. But every word he says is exactly what he’s feeling and thinking.

"It can be  _our_ world.” Gavin’s eyes shine with excitement, “This one is so much better than yours! It’s so quiet and peaceful. Nobody to bother us or tell us what to do. No strict schedules or hard labor. Just doing whatever you want all the time with nobody around to nag you or tell you otherwise. No over looming fear of starvation, dehydration, exhaustion, or depression. It’s quite literally a perfect world. It’s  _m_ y perfect world… and I want  _you_ to stay here with me.”

Michael closes his eyes, trying to force himself to stop considering it. It does sound perfect. Being here with Gavin everyday, not having to worry about anything else. But how long will it really last? It’s apparent that he’s slowly losing memories of his real life, so much that he can hardly even remember what it felt like to be back in that world. Every single memory is replaced with this one and Gavin.

"But don’t you get lonely?"

"I suppose I used to. But then you came about and you made everything better."

There’s a few moments of silence where they just stare at each other, enjoying the tranquility of the moment and each others presence.

"Come back with me," Michael offers. He already knows that it’s a futile request but he can’t stop himself from feeling hopeful, "My friends are usually really nice but even when they’re mean it’s funny and laughable! You could work with me and my friends in this building. You’d have fun."

Gavin’s eyes shine with regret and Michael knows his answer before he even opens his mouth to respond. “I can’t.”

"Why not?"

"I live here. This is my home," he shrugs, "My  _world_. If I leave it alone then I don’t know if it still exists..”

Michael nods slowly, but desperate ideas still spring into his head, “What if you just came back for a visit? Just for a little while?”

Gavin just shakes his head, unable to give a proper answer and instead changes the subject, “Do you remember the combination to get back?”

"Combination?"

"Yeah, you said before that you’d gotten here by pressing the buttons in a certain order. Do you need to do that again to get back?"

Gavin saying that unstores those memories and spreads them out for him to remember. He briefly recalls the numbers being drilled into his brain as though his life depended on it. Although he brushed it off at the time, he’s thankful for it now. “Yeah, of course.”

The boy grins playfully, “Recite it to me!”

He raises an eyebrow, “What? Why?”

"I just want to make sure," he smiles, delighted that he can somehow turn this into a game, "What if you get in the elevator but have no idea what buttons to press. Then you could get stuck in there forever."

He internally shudders at the thought but easily recites off the numbers without any difficulty at all, as though he were telling somebody his name or age. “Four, two, six, two, ten, five, one.”

"Perfect!" Gavin beams even though he has no idea if there are any mistakes in it.

The elevator leaves him feeling odd too. Not bad. Just odd. Like it’s leaving a bad taste in his mouth and he wants to turn away from it forever.

"What will you do when I’m gone?"

"I don’t know."

"It worries me," Michael murmurs.

Gavin tilts his head to the side, “Why?”

He honestly doesn’t have an answer to that. Maybe just because Gavin is the only other person that he knows and he doesn’t want to even risk losing sight of him for even a moment. If he’s gone from his line of vision does he really even exist?

Does Gavin even exist at all?

He’s in this odd world that shouldn’t be real and socializing with an odd and peculiar British boy. Maybe none of this is even real. Maybe he just fell down and hit his head or something. He might wake up and be in a hospital bed somewhere surrounded by the familiar faces of his friends.

Michael isn’t able to stop himself from reaching out and touching Gavin’s face with the tips of his fingers, as though reminding himself that yes. Gavin is here. Gavin is real.

The boy doesn’t question it and instead smiles softly, then reaches up and does the same to Michael’s cheek.

His fingers are soft and calming, as though he’s transferring pleasant feelings through the tips and rewiring Michael’s entire brain.

It’s odd how quickly things can transition here.

Something about this world is just so fast paced. It might also have to do with that fact that he still doesn’t have any idea how much time has passed since he’s been here. But it’s like his very thought process is being shifted the more time he stays. He’s beginning to worry less and less about his life back home and thinks more about his life here. With Gavin. In front of an elevator, drawing closer and closer to him.

"I’m gonna miss you," Gavin’s whispered words bring him out of his thoughts.

He hadn’t even realized how close they were until he can feel Gavin’s warm breath against his face. “I won’t forget you.”

"But you will."

Michael doesn’t register the words and is too focused on closing the space between them. He expects Gavin to be as childish and inexperienced with kissing as he is with the rest of the world, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Gavin’s warm lips are comforting against his, soft and gentle. Not cold or timid like he was expecting. There’s life to him, he isn’t just an empty body without a soul. Gavin is a real person and he’s capable of kissing, of sending little waves of pleasure through his lips with each moment that their connected.

Michael reaches up to rest his hand on Gavin’s cheek, just desperate to pull them closer and keep this going as long as possible. He doesn’t want to let go.

He doesn’t want to say goodbye.

So instead of pulling away and saying that final word that means he has to leave, he pulls them closer and Gavin easily complies. Content to deepen the kiss with such experience that it momentarily numbs Michael’s brain from the leap.

Experienced as though they’ve shared a million simple kisses before and are finally deep enough into an intimate relationship to share these kind of slow passionate ones. The ones that, when finished, make you feel compelled to dart your eyes back and forth to make sure nobody else was around to witness. You pull away with red cheeks and laugh because that was the first time you’ve ever felt such raw emotion from another person that you’ve just come to realize how much you care about.

But that isn’t it. They’ve skipped the sweet puppy love part and dove head first right into this genuine trust and care for one another even though it’s only been a short amount of time. Maybe it’s the realization that he’s leaving now, and they will probably never see each other again.

He doesn’t know, all he knows is that Gavin is real and Gavin is  _here_. With him. And right now that’s all that really matters.

It’s confusing to feel so much for somebody that you can’t stay with.

When they finally pull away Michael takes a step back so that he’s actually inside of the elevator now. He doesn’t take his eyes off of Gavin and ignores every single little voice inside his head that’s telling him to get out and stay here.

Just stay here.

It’s a nice idea. A beautiful thought. This world may be dark and haunting, but Gavin’s presence changes that. The bouncy boy that doesn’t see this world as it is and just thinks of it as his own personal playground.

He wishes he could stay long enough to view it like Gavin does. As though it’s this amazing and portentous place that’s worth staying in even though the time spent is alone.

But he has to go.

His hand shakes when he wordlessly presses the button  _four_.

He tries to desperately study every inch of Gavin’s face as the elevator doors slowly begin to close. It’s only when he reaches Gavin’s eyes that he feels the explosion go off in his brain. He wants to scream and rip his hair out and destroy everything because this  _isn’t fair._ Nothing in this world is fair. And he hates himself for ever agreeing to come here.

"Take care of yourself, okay?" Gavin whispers but he can hear it clear as day.

Michael nods unsurely as the doors are mere seconds away from closing. He has to mentally force himself from reaching out to stop them. “Okay.”

The two halves of the elevator doors meet in the middle, trapping him inside of the tiny room and blocking him off from Gavin entirely. Instead of looking at his forced smile and deep eyes, only the glossy sliver door stares back at him.

He doesn’t even feel the elevator moving and is too focused on his own thoughts. The doors open when he reaches the determined floor, but he doesn’t get out and is barely paying attention.

_Two._

Something is fighting with him to get out. To break free from his skin and do something. Anything. Pull the emergency stop or force the doors open with his bare hands. It wouldn’t work. It couldn’t work, but something is screaming at him to  _try_.

Instead he just pushes the next button.

_Six._

He’s too lost in his own thoughts to really care about anything as pointless as how the elevator isn’t playing any music, how he has important work to do, or how useless going up and down different floors in an elevator is.

_Two._

He closes his eyes. Clenches his fists so tightly that he can feel his nails making tiny little crescent shaped indention’s in his palms.

_Ten._

He lets out a deep breath, one he didn’t realize he was holding. He allows himself to just calm his mind for a moment. Force it to settle down and remind it that he’s just in an elevator.

_Five._

Just a stupid elevator.

_One._

He looks up at the tiny screen above the doors and sees that instead of going down, the elevator is going up. Before it can reach the tenth floor he presses another button to cancel it out. He doesn’t bother looking to see which one.

All he can think about is Gavin. Just running that final image of him through his brain countless times, desperate to memorize every single little thing about him as though his life depends on it.

The elevator doors open, and everything is loud again.

He can hear everything. His own breathing feels like it’s amplified by one hundred. The sound of the building humming quietly, every creak and squeak of the floor being walked on by people in the building, and his friends crying out in concern when he holds his hands painfully over his ears and collapses.

Burnie manages to scramble into the elevator in time and catch him before he hits the ground.

He doesn’t know why his legs gave out like that. Maybe it’s just the realization that he’s back here and everything is so different. Being thrust into a completely different world just takes everything out of you all at once, even the air feels heavy and thick compared to Gavin’s world.

When he went to that world it wasn’t like this, but he does remember feeling light and airy in comparison. Here it’s like he’s being crushed into a small condensed space and it’s almost impossible to breathe.

"Michael,  _Michael_ ,” Burnie repeats, shaking his shoulders slightly. He blinks a few times, trying to focus on his boss and the others that are all crowded around him.

"Get him out of the elevator, come on," he hears someone say, but the voice is still fuzzy and difficult to comprehend.

Michael feels Burnie dragging him out, and then he feels the ground beneath his body. He’s lying on the floor and it helps to remind him that he’s heavy here, that gravity feels thicker and there’s no overwhelming urge to jump up and run around for fun. The office lights above his head shine bright and hurt his eyes but it also helps to focus on everybody’s faces. They’re all crouched down around him, asking numerous questions about if he’s okay.

"I-I’m fine," he croaks out, his voice is hoarse and gravelly. He tries to cough but it doesn’t do anything other than make his insides burn.

"It’s okay, Michael. Just calm down, just breathe slowly," Burnie instructs, and he didn’t even realize that he was hyperventilating in the first place. His breathing is coming out in quick pants and those words remind him that he’s struggling for air. It’s like he’s breathing in something other than oxygen and his lungs are crying out for help. He feels like he’s either going to vomit or die.

It seems like forever until everything settles. Everything slowly becomes more clear and crisp to his eyes, loud noises fade into quiet hums that his ears fail to recognize, and it all slowly becomes normal again.

"Are you okay?" Lindsay asks, and when Michael tries to sit up she puts a hand on his arm to help keep him steady.

"I think so," he murmurs, his own voice sounds so quiet to his ears.

"That was fucking crazy," Ray exclaims.

He blinks a few times, allowing his eyes to continue adjusting to his surroundings, “How long have I been gone? A week?”

Everybody’s eyes widen as they look away from him to stare at one another in confusion and concern. As though he’s just said something insane or impossible.

"What’s wrong?" he questions, growing worried at their expressions.

"What are you talking about?" Ray asks, concern evident on his face, "It’s been like five seconds, man."

“ _What!?_ ”

"Yeah," Lindsay says slowly, "The doors closed, a few seconds passed, and then they opened again. And you looked like  _death_.”

"But…" Michael mutters, scrunching his eyebrows together in confusion, "That doesn’t make any sense."

"Don’t worry about it, Michael, just relax and calm down a little," Burnie says, "Sorry that we convinced you to do that. It seems to have fucked you up a bit."

"What the hell happened in there?"

"I… I don’t know," he murmurs, looking back at the doors of the elevators as they slowly begin to close.


End file.
